Recap: Feole's Sharp Outing Lifts Gatemen to Fourth Straight Victory

As the Gatemen get ready to set their starting rotation for the home stretch of the regular season, Mason Feole certainly has made his case.

Feole turned in his finest performance of the season on Wednesday night, allowing just one base runner to reach over five innings of work. Offensively, meanwhile, the Gatemen plated double digit runs for a second consecutive today as Wareham defeated Brewster, 10-3, at Stony Brook Field.

In his chase to become the third consecutive Gatemen to win the Thurmon Munson Batting Title, Tanner Dodson went 2-for-5 with his first home run of the season.

The win stretches Wareham’s winning streak to four games and improves the Gatemen to .500 (15-15-1) for the first time since they were 2-2.

Gatemen coach Don Sneddon said the .500 benchmark has been one his team has been chasing after for a long time.

“It seems like it has been forever,” said Sneddon. “That is where we want to be right now. Of course we’d like to have a few losses back but now that we have gotten here we want to get above .500 and stay above it.”

In his third start of the season, Feole proved that he has the potential to be a dominant arm for Wareham over the final few weeks of the Cape League season.

The left-hander out of the University of Connecticut surrendered a one out single to Brewster’ two-hitter Steel Walker in the first inning but after that was simply flawless.

Feole retired the last 14 hitters he faced and went to a three-ball count just one time. Locating his four-seam fastball to perfection before putting the Whitecaps’ hitters away with his change up and curveball, Feole allowed just one hard hit ball all evening long.

“I’m real excited for (Feole),” said Sneddon. “He has waited for his turn and he went out there and did a great job. He threw strikes and he has some big starts coming up for us. To see Mason go out there and do that helps us big time.”

At the plate Wareham busted out 11 hits one day after they came up with 17 hits versus Hyannis.

The Gatemen jumped on top 1-0 in the top of the fourth on an RBI triple off the bat of Tristan Pompey before creating some separation in the fifth.

Robbie Metz dropped down a bunt base hit to begin the stanza. Metz proceeded to steal second base, and a hard hit groundball off the bat of Steven Kwan got past Whitecaps second baseman Christian Molfetta to give the Gatemen their second run of the day.

One batter later, Dodson lined a base hit right up the middle, scoring Kwan to put the Gatemen on top 3-0.

It was Dodson’s base running which helped add the Gatemen’s fourth run of the day.

With Dodson leading off third and Willie MacIver off first and two men down, MacIver broke for second base.

Whitecaps catcher Michael Gasper threw down to second, and as soon as the ball left Gasper’s hand Dodson broke for the plate. Molfetta snared the throw from Gasper out of the air and fired back home, but Dodson’s headfirst slide got in ahead of the tag to give Wareham a 4-0 lead.

Montgomery threw just one perfect inning in which he struck out a batter. The right-hander out of Cal Baptist will be the Western Division’s starting pitcher on Saturday.

Roberts, for his part, went two innings letting up one run on two hits. He struck out four of the first five batters he faced and touched 96 miles per hour with his fastball.

Leading 6-0 in the top half of the ninth the Gatemen blew the game wide open.

Dodson began the inning by swinging at the first pitch fastball he saw and turning Stony Brook Field into a launch pad. The California Berkley two-way player drilled the pitch deep down the line in right for a solo blast and a 7-0 Gatemen lead.

“We had a bit of a lead so I expected something good to hit early in the count,” said Dodson. “I got a fastball early, decided to be aggressive and put a good swing on it.”

Jarren Duran and Blake Sabol put their own stamps on Wareham’s emphatic win later in the ninth as Duran’s RBI ground rule double and Sabol’s two run single cemented the Gatemen’s victory.

Next Up: Wareham takes on Chatham for the fourth and final time this season. First pitch from Spillane Field is set for 630pm and Noah Zavolas is the Gatemen’s probable starter.